UMD-UMB Research Seed Grant Winners Announced at Reception

UMD-UMB Research Seed Grant Winners Announced at Reception

A reception was held on July 11, 2013 at the University of Maryland BioPark to recognize this year’s recipients of Seed Grants from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD).
 
The intent of the Research Seed Program is to: 1) foster teams of investigators crossing disciplinary boundaries and campuses; 2) establish research foci capable of resulting in preliminary data relevant to future public health improvements and potential commercialization; and, 3) ultimately submit research proposals to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, or other federal or private funding agencies. The program is also intended to foster collaborations between junior and senior investigators in order to provide mentorship for new investigators in the art of grant writing and research. The maximum per grant award is $75,000.

This year, all seed grant recipients from UMB were faculty at the School of Medicine. The winning projects were:

• Mechanisms Leading to Osteoporosis in Patients with Lysosomal Dysfunction Due to Genetic Alterations in Osteoblast and Osteoclast Glucocerebrosidase - Ricardo Feldman, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology  (UMB), and Norma Andrews, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics (UMD)
• The Role of Early Brain Circuits in Autism - Bruce Krueger, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology (UMB), and Patrick Kanold, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biology (UMD)
• Touch-Free Manipulation of Live Cancer Cells to Observe their Tumor-Formation and Drug Response Behavior - Stuart Martin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology (UMB), and Benjamin Shapiro, PhD, Professor, Fischell Department of Bioengineering, Institute for Systems Research, A. James Clark School of Engineering (UMD)
• Maternal-Infant Immunization for Protection against B. Pertussis - Marcela Pasetti, PhD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics (UMB), and Xiaoping Zhu, DVM, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine (UMD)
• A Robotic Grasping and Vision (GraspVis) System for Stroke Rehabilitation - Kelly Westlake, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences (UMB), and Jaydev Desai, PhD, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Director of the Robotics, Automation and Medical Systems (RAMS) Laboratory (UMD)
• Ambient Air Pollution and Metabolic Syndrome in the Lancaster County Amish - Braxton Mitchell, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine (UMB), and Robin Puett, PhD, Assistant Professor, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (UMD)
• Development of a Novel Animal Model for Human Preeclampsia - Loren Thompson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences (UMB), and Bhanu Telugu, PhD, BVS, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences (UMD)

Now part of the MPowering the State Initiative, the Research Seed Grant Program began six years ago.

With the quality of work the Seed Program has produced, meeting this challenge should only be a matter of time. Before the reception for this year’s awardees, last year’s grant recipients presented the results of their projects, which included innovative research on breast cancer, nuclear imaging, antiviral drug development, hemorrhage control, liver disease and HIV inhibitors.

John Fisher, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, Fischell Department of Bioengineering (UMD) and Richard Pierson III, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Interim Director for Research Affairs at the School of Medicine (UMB), are co-chairs of the Seed Grant Committee and served as Masters of Ceremony for the event. Along with President Perman and Dean Reece, other honored guests included William E. Kirwan, PhD, Chancellor, University System of Maryland; Wallace D. Loh, JD, PhD, President, UMD; Bruce Jarrell, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Academic & Research Officer, UMB; and Mary Ann Rankin, PhD, Senior Vice President and Provost, UMD.

July 18, 2013